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What Is Privileged Access Management
Privileged Access Management (often abbreviated PAM) refers to the policies, processes, and tools used to control, monitor, secure, and audit access to accounts and systems that have elevated privileges. Privileged accounts are those with administrative rights or special permissions (for example root accounts, domain admin, system operators, service accounts) that can bypass normal protections or make higher impact changes. PAM aims to reduce risk by ensuring that privileged access is only granted when necessary, used appropriately, and monitored continuously.
Why PAM Matters to Businesses
Risk Exposure Without PAM
- Privileged accounts are prime targets for attackers. If compromised, an attacker can escalate privileges, move laterally, access sensitive systems or data, or disable defenses.
- Insider risk is also elevated if staff or contractors misuse elevated privileges.
- Lack of control over privileged access often leads to compliance or audit findings.
What Businesses Are Required (or Encouraged) to Do
Depending on industry, regulation, contracts, or internal governance, businesses may be required (or expected) to:
- Identify and inventory all privileged accounts—including system/service accounts, admin accounts, vendor/third-party privileged logins.
- Define policies governing when privileged access is granted, reviewed, revoked; enforce least privilege.
- Ensure authentication controls (strong passwords, credential rotation, multi-factor authentication) on privileged accounts.
- Restrict and monitor privileged sessions; maintain logs.
- Implement separation of duties and just-in-time access where feasible.
Legal, Regulatory, and Documentation Requirements
- Regulations such as HIPAA, PCI DSS, GDPR, various state data protection laws, or government contracting standards often expect or require controls around privileged access (for example, ensuring only authorized individuals have access, enforcing good identity management, logging and audit trails).
- Contracts (especially with government or regulated entities) may specify PAM controls as part of security requirements.
- Documentation: policies and procedures for privileged access, access request workflows, audit logs, reviews of privileged access, justification for elevated privileges, records of revocation.
- Audits: being able to show via logs, reviews, evidence that privileged access policies are being enforced and that privileged sessions are monitored and controlled.
How PAM Works: Structure & Process
Privileged Access Management works through a combination of processes, controls, technology, and governance. Key components and a typical workflow include:
Key Components / Controls
- Inventory of Privileged Entities: Maintain the list of privileged user accounts, service accounts, and privileged roles.
- Access Policies: Define who can have which privilege, under what conditions, with what approvals. Define least privilege (grant only what is needed).
- Credential Management: Strong passwords, secrets management, rotating credentials, limiting long-term credentials, use of vaults or secret stores.
- Authentication Controls: Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), strong identity verification for privileged logins.
- Just-in-Time Privileges / Time-bound Access: Grant elevated access only for the time needed, then revoke.
- Session Management and Monitoring: Record privileged sessions, monitor what is done, alert on unusual patterns.
- Audit & Logging: Maintain detailed logs of privileged access, what actions were taken, who performed them, when.
- Separation of Duties / Role Based Access Control (RBAC): Ensuring that no single privileged account has too much power without oversight.
- Periodic Review & Reassessment: Regularly review privileged access, verify need, revoke unnecessary privileges.
Workflow & Process
A typical process to implement PAM:
- Discovery & Inventory: Identify all systems, accounts, service credentials that have elevated privileges.
- Risk Assessment: Assess the risk associated with each privileged account (e.g. what data or systems they can access, how they are used, what threats exist).
- Define Policies & Procedures: Establish policies for granting, using, reviewing, and revoking privileged access.
- Select Tools & Controls: Choose or build tools for credential vaults, session monitoring, audit, enforced MFA, etc.
- Implement Controls: Put tools into place, configure access policies, enforce least privilege, establish logging and monitoring, enable MFA.
- Training & Awareness: Ensure that staff, administrators, and third parties understand policies, responsibilities, and are trained on secure use of privileged accounts.
- Monitor & Log: Continuously monitor privileged access; record sessions; generate alerts on anomalous behavior.
- Review & Audit: Regular reviews of who has privileged access, logs, policy compliance; internal or external audits; remediate issues.
- Continuous Improvement: Based on audit findings, incidents, changing technology or threats, update privileged access controls.
Real-World Use Cases & Examples
- A financial services firm restricts domain admin access only to specific staff and only during maintenance windows. All privileged sessions are recorded, and administrators must use MFA and credential vaults.
- A healthcare organization uses PAM to control access by third-party vendors to internal clinical systems. Vendor accounts are time bound and reviewed quarterly.
- An IT operations team in a large enterprise rolls out Just-in-Time (JIT) access so that elevated privileges are granted automatically for a defined window when needed and revoked afterward.
- A cloud infrastructure provider requires privilege elevation through ticketing, credential vaults, MFA, and audit logs to meet compliance requirements (e.g. ISO 27001, NIST, PCI DSS).
- As part of cyber insurance underwriting, insurers often request evidence of PAM controls (for example enforced MFA, credential rotation, privileged session logging). Apptega content notes that privileged access management is one of the “active defenses” that insurers expect.
How Apptega Supports Privileged Access Management Controls
- Apptega exposes privileged access management as a named control or sub-control in many of its compliance frameworks, enabling assessment, tracking, evidence collection, and audit readiness. For example, in “7 Key Security Controls Every Organization Should Have,” PAM is listed as a core control that organizations are expected to implement.
- Apptega offers policy templates such as the Audit and Accountability Policy Template, which covers “privileged functions performed,” helping organizations define logging and accountability controls for privileged access.
- Through its framework cross-walking tools, Apptega helps map PAM requirements across multiple standards or frameworks so that businesses can satisfy overlapping obligations more efficiently.
- Apptega’s continuous compliance reporting and dashboards allow businesses to monitor control status (including PAM), generate evidence for audits, track tasks for remediation, and maintain documentation.
